RESPECT RIGHTS OF INMATES (FEB 10, 2010)

Governance and human rights advocates are alarmed at the appalling conditions in the country’s police cells and prisons.
The dehumanising conditions in the structures for keeping suspected criminals should stir decision makers into action to reverse the anomaly.
Several commissions have been tasked to review the penal system so that our prisons and police cells do not become centres of retribution but for reformation.
The Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Ghana Prisons Service have drawn public attention to the plight of prisoners to whip up support for actions to address the myriad of problems in the justice delivery system.
Some ex-convicts who had a brush with the law and found themselves in one of the country’s prisons have advocated the need for urgent action to support reforms in the penal system.
No wonder the country’s conscience was once again pricked on Monday following the death of two remand inmates through suffocation at the Ashiaman Police cells.
But, interestingly, the Ghana Police Service, in a knee-jerk reaction, has commenced a cell audit to decongest cells in the country, as if to say that the congestion started a few days ago or that there has not been any such audit before.
The Daily Graphic can vouch that characteristic of our behaviour, the recommendations of this audit will lie on the shelves, only for another calamity to befall us before we wake up from our slumber.
It is inhuman for any person to lock up 45 inmates in a cell that is meant for only 10 people. The Constitution guarantees the rights of even prison inmates and the same Constitution provides that suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Indeed, even convicts have the right to life unless the death sentence has been imposed on them.
We should hold those in charge of the penal system accountable for the avoidable deaths in police cells.
The conditions in the prisons and police cells should spur us on to act because many of the inmates have been on remand for well over 10 years without any charges being preferred against them.
All over the world, the penal system is meant to help suspected criminals and convicts to reform and come back to integrate themselves into society to contribute their quota to nation building.
The Daily Graphic calls on the government to take the bull by the horns and reform the system to help the inmates live in a more humane environment.
We also call on all the stakeholders to respect the constitutional obligation that enjoins prosecutors to put suspected criminals on trial within the stipulated 48 hours after their arrest.
The Daily Graphic urges the police to attach more importance to the cell audit to address, once and for all, the challenges caused by congestion in the cells.
Yes, resources are scarce, but nothing ever gets accomplished if we are not committed to the cause of reforming the penal system.
We urge the stakeholders to support the police in their efforts to make the cells more accommodating of the rights of suspected criminals.